Beaty Heart: Exclusive FAULT interview and shoot

Ever since the release of their debut album back in 2014, there’s been no looking back for alternative-pop trio Beaty Heart. Likening to the sounds of Jungle, Caribou and Alt-J, these boys are young, they’re original and their music will have you hooked. The former art-school students’ new album ‘Till The Tomb’ has already received amazing recognition after it’s release in July, including praise from Annie Mac, who believes the boys are definitely one to keep an eye on this year. Currently on their September tour across the US and Canada, Beaty Heart took the time to discuss their remarkable journey with us.

First question, think quick – describe each of yourselves in one word.

Charlie: Fair.

Josh: …Fair?!

James: Confused.

Josh: Broke.

You’ve definitely introduced a new sound to your most recent album. Was the process of writing a lot different from your previous album?

Josh: Yeah it was completely different. We wrote the first record in practice space studios and we weren’t really focusing on writing songs or anything. A lot of those songs came out of this energy we had from performing together in these spaces, but this new one we really focused on the song writing a bit more. It was written in much more subdued environments where we were a lot more isolated. We said at the start of the process that this was something we really wanted to focus on more.

So currently you’re on your incredible tour around the US and Canada. Have you noticed a difference between the fans across countries?

Josh: I mean not really. There are definitely places where we go down better, but it all kind of depends on loads of different factors, like the day of the week or the age group. I wouldn’t say there’s a difference between nationalities of fans – everyone seems to go for it.

Charlie: Everyone digs it [laughs].

Josh: But yeah, it’s just so great to be in America.

Have you got any crazy tour stories for us?

Josh: We’ve literally just been driving for the last three days, but we’ve been through so many different environments, it’s been so mental. We drove through Yellowstone National Park, which was honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Every day we see something either really ridiculous or really crazy. We were in Montana the other day and we had to stop off in this shitty little town to stay the night. We ended up going to this casino/saloon thing next door and we met these cattle farmers.

Charlie: Real life cowboys!

Josh: Yeah they had like the hats and the accents – everything. So we had a few whiskeys with them and ended up lassoing each other! It was pretty crazy, but that’s what America is like! Our experience of it seems to be really surreal.

Charlie: It’s exactly how you imagine it [everyone laughs].

What’s it been like working with such prestigious producers like Dave Eringa and David Wrench? Did you find it slighting daunting?

Charlie: Dave [Eringa] is, for anyone that knows him, the loveliest man. Even taking into consideration his incredible reputation and everyone he’s worked with, it wasn’t at all daunting. He’s a good friend of ours now and I think we work really well with him in the studio. David Wrench we had a slightly different relationship with, but again he’s such lovely man.

Could you give us a bit of an insight into your new album artwork?

Josh: Well we have this Pinterest board where we collect all these images and we had hundreds of different images that we really wanted to outsource the artwork from because in the past we’d always done it ourselves. Me and James were looking and we found the photograph that you see on the front cover and we felt that it just really suited the tone of the record. It’s kind of this really…almost stereotypically beautiful image that has these sort-of tear marks going down it. We thought it kind of reflected the album in terms of it being quite accessible, but also having something that’s slightly uneasy about it – something slightly distorted about it. From there we contacted the artist and James mocked up this layout, which is based on similarities from Miles Davis records – where there’s an image in the middle and a nice text at the top. The artwork was something we also thought really reflected the aesthetics and the tones we’d discussed.

Charlie: The photographer is called Yves Rulliere [www.savage-eyes.blogspot.com].

What’s been the most special moment of your careers so far?

James: Probably getting on FIFA 2017 [everyone laughs].

Charlie: To be fair, the two times we’ve come to America have been pretty big moments for the band, definitely a really exciting place to play. It’s kind of like a home away from home and there’s really incredible scenery we get to drive through everyday. We played Glastonbury as well! That was fun.